Printed tickets are used in may different types of games of chance. These game tickets include a ticket substrate (also referred to herein as a “gaming ticket substrate”) made of paper stock or other suitable media. Various graphic elements and indicia, especially indicia representing game outcomes, are commonly printed on one side of the ticket substrate. Encoded information may also be printed on one or both sides of the ticket substrate in the form of bar codes or other coding devices. Gaming tickets may also include data carrying devices included on the ticket substrate. For example, a magnetic strip may be included on a gaming ticket commonly on a side opposite the printed indicia used in the game. Such data carrying arrangements may be encoded with data such as identifying data for the ticket or for the game outcomes associated with the ticket for example.
Historically, gaming tickets carrying printed indicia that represent one or more outcomes in a game have been preprinted in large lots. These large lots are commonly subdivided into smaller groups which are distributed to vending sites where individual tickets may be purchased by players. The portions of the tickets printed with outcome indicating indicia have commonly been covered or otherwise obscured with some sort of removable material which is to be removed only by the game player/ticket purchaser. Covering the outcome indicating indicia on a gaming ticket prevents an unscrupulous vendor from examining a group of tickets in their control and picking out winning tickets for themselves or their cohorts.
More recently, printed ticket gaming systems have been developed to avoid the expense associated with maintaining security for tickets as they are distributing to vending locations from a central production facility. U.S. Pat. No. 5,941,771 to Haste discloses a gaming system in which printed gaming tickets are printed at a vending location or point of sale. Even though a point of sale printing system may be able to print a ticket with the outcome indicating indicia immediately before the ticket is released to the player or purchaser, it is still desirable, or required by regulation, to obscure the outcome indicating indicia on the ticket before the ticket is released to the player. For one thing, this indicia obscuring requirement helps assure the game player that the game is being administered fairly and that the vendor is not secreting away the winning tickets.
Several different arrangements have been developed for temporarily obscuring the outcome indicating indicia on a game ticket. For example, the game indicia on a ticket may be covered by a layer of obscuring material that may be scratched off to reveal the game indicia. These types of tickets are commonly referred to as “scratch-off” tickets and the games employing such tickets are referred to as “scratch-off” games. Scratch-off tickets may be made by applying the scratch-off material directly to the substrate. This manufacturing method, however, requires specialized and relatively expensive equipment and is thus suited for use only where tickets are created in bulk at a central manufacturing facility and then distributed to vending locations. As shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,738,473 to Meloni et al., scratch-off material may also be applied to a sheet of clear material and this sheet of material may then be fixed on the ticket to obscure the game indicia on the ticket. In this covering system, an attempt to remove the clear sheet damages the underlying ticket to indicate that the ticket has been tampered with. The arrangement shown in the Meloni patent facilitates the production of scratch-off tickets at vending locations, however, it still requires that the clear sheets be preprinted with the scratch off material using the specialized equipment.
Another arrangement for temporarily obscuring the game indicia printed on a gaming ticket utilizes a cover sheet of opaque material. The opaque cover sheet is secured to the ticket substrate at the time the ticket is manufactured and may be removed by the player after purchasing the ticket. Traditionally, gaming tickets using a removable cover sheet have configured the cover sheet so that several different portions or tabs must be removed to reveal all of the game indicia printed on the ticket. These types of tickets have come to be known as pull tab tickets and the games using such tickets are referred to as pull tab games.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/037,178 filed Oct. 23, 2001, and entitled “Electronic Pull Tab Gaming System,” the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by this reference, discloses a gaming system in which large numbers of predetermined game outcomes may be printed on a gaming ticket in the form of various game indicia. The player may then take the gaming ticket to a player station to reveal the predetermined outcomes associated with the indicia printed on the ticket. The player station includes a reader for reading data from the ticket to identify the outcomes associated with the ticket, and also includes a user interface and graphics system that reveals the outcomes to the player in an entertaining fashion. Alternatively, the player may manually look up the indicia in a prize or pay table to learn of the outcomes associated with the ticket, or may have the ticket read by a gaming establishment attendant.
It is desirable, or in some cases required by regulation, to obscure the game indicia on the gaming ticket at the time it is issued to the player in the system described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/037,178. However, because the player station must read data from the ticket substrate in order to identify the predetermined outcomes associated with the ticket, any obscuring material must be capable of being readily removed by the player in such a fashion that it leaves the ticket substrate generally intact. That is, the obscuring material must be capable of being removed without leaving the ticket substrate in a condition that data carried on the substrate cannot be read by a ticket reader associated with the player station.
Scratch-off material is undesirable for use with gaming tickets used in the system described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/037,178 because of the relatively high cost of the material and because the material may leave residue that may ultimately damage the player station card reader or otherwise prevent the reader from reading data from the tickets. Peel-off or tear-off obscuring material must be capable of being removed easily without leaving residues or remnants on the ticket substrate that could interfere with the operation of the player station card readers. What is needed then is an efficient apparatus and method for receiving a ticket printed at the point of sale and applying a non-deforming, easily removable cover material to the ticket substrate prior to issuing the ticket to the player.